Trail Dance

I went to the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan, OK this past weekend. It's only about a four hour drive from where I live, so it seemed like it was worth it to make the drive. And it was - Trail Dance is only five years old, but they've already developed the event really nicely. The local community is fully supportive of the festival, and many filmmakers were in attendance.

I met several filmmakers while there. I am not the networking type, even though it's good for me to network. I just go into a shell sometimes when I'm at a festival, not wanting to draw attention to myself for some reason. In spite of that natural inclination, I forced myself to chat with some folks and enjoyed getting to know them.

We stayed for the Sunday evening awards ceremony, knowing we would get home very late and that the kids had to go to school on Monday, because Endings was nominated for multiple awards (Best Feature Drama, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor/Actress in a Feature).

As the evening wore on and we did NOT win any early awards, I started to wonder if I was going to regret having to make a long drive late on Sunday night. But I won the Best Screenplay award for the film, and I was very pleased to walk away with one of the nicely designed and hefty "Golden Drover" statues (see the photo), complete with an engraved plaque indicating my award.

I'm grateful to the fest for inviting us to be a part and for giving us an award. I was disappointed for my daughter, Emma, who did not win for Best Actor/Actress in a Feature. But considering she was up against actors like Wes Studi (Avatar, Last of the Mohicans) and the eventual winner Muse Watson (a veteran actor of over 40 film roles), I'd say she was in good enough company that it really was just an honor to be nominated with such performers in her first screen role.